SCIENTISTS found a never-before-seen species of bacteria lurking in a patient’s heart.
The patient, who works as a shepherd in Canterbury, was admitted to St Thomas Hospital with a fever.
Medics who tested his blood were able to see that two different types of bacteria were the cause of his infection.
They were able to name of the germs, but couldn’t identify the second one with conventional laboratory tests.
Researchers used technology developed called the nanopore sequencer, can read long, single sequences of DNA much faster than other techniques, to put a name to the mystery bacteria.
The results, published in the International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology, showed a never-before-seen strain of a group of bacteria commonly found in soil, called Variovorax.
This new species was discovered in the patient’s aorta – the largest artery in the circulatory system that pumps oxygen-rich blood to the rest of the body.
Lara Payne, Specialist Registrar at St Thomas’ Hospital, explained how the patient may have picked up the mystery germ: “Further investigation suggested the patient became infected during the lambing season or while feeding the sheep anti-parasite medications, which was all done without gloves.”
The shepherd tended to 1500 sheep, according to the report, and had developed chronic dermatitis – skin irritation and rash – during lambing season, “which likely served as a port of entry for environmental pathogens”.
At the patient’s request, researcher’s named the novel bacteria Variovorax durovernensis – the Latin name for Canterbury.
The paper also highlighted how nanopore sequencing could be used in hospitals in the future, as the fast and user friendly equipment can be provided directly to hospitals instead of the more time-consuming process of sending samples to specialist laboratories for analysis.
Author Dr Luke Blagdon Snell, clinical research fellow at King’s College London, predicted that “we will probably discover more new microbes and uncover new ways they interact with our bodies and cause infections” as use of this new technology becomes more widespread.
And with ‘atypical infections’ from bacteria found in the environment increasing, being able to easily identify unusual or new species of bacteria in hospital will mean patients can received quicker and more targeted treatments, the research authors added.
